The microcirculation in rat spinotrapezius
muscle and muscle fascia is investigated using a computational approach. The simulations
are based on a realistic microvascular network structure obtained from microscope
observations and consider both blood rheology and vessel elasticity. An improved model
for the apparent viscosity of blood is developed to take the shear thinning nature of
blood into account. Capillary bundles of muscle tissue are composed of vessels that
mainly follow the direction of muscle fibers. In muscle fascia, however, the capillary
vessels form a mesh like network without a preferred direction. This structural
difference leads to significant differences in the microcirculation. In the muscle
fascia, vessel length, velocity, and shear rate follow a lognormal distribution. In
muscle, however, the data does not support a lognormal distribution. For both networks,
the hematocrit follows an approximately normal distribution
